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JME Online First, published on August 9, 2011 as 10.1136/medethics-2011-100061 Brief report

A new and accurate way to identify elite athletes

Warren C Reed
Correspondence to Warren C Reed, 4075 Fearrington Post, Pittsboro, North Carolina, USA; wcreed@post.harvard.edu Received 23 June 2011 Accepted 29 June 2011

ABSTRACT A simple thought experiment and web search tools are brought to bear on conventional notions of disability. A Nobel Prize winner weighs in.
Readers will be interested to learn of breakthrough research that identies a trait shared by all 20 of the fastest nishers in the mens 2011 Boston Marathon. To a man, they were in the wheelchair division. In related research, informal and non-rigorous queries of the few medical publication websites known to the writer yield this data on the use of out-dated terminology (table 1). Clearly there are many in the medical profession who dont understand that wheelchairs are instruments of liberation, not connement. The WHO just released its lengthy World Report on Disability, with an eloquent introduction by Nobelist Professor Stephen Hawking. Hawking has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or something very similar. In a few paragraphs he sums up his own good fortune in having a noteworthy career, excellent care givers and appropriate symptomatic care. He calls on us to recognise our moral duty to remove barriers facing people with disabilities. He sounds a hopeful note that this century will mark a turning point for inclusion of people with disabilities in the lives of their societies. Table 1 Searching for Stereotypes
Number of articles and source Search terms Conned + wheelchair Bound + wheelchair Total JAMA (since 2000) 48 101 149 JME 214 469 683

Its hard to imagine how that might happen if 8680 medical researchers continue to think of wheelchairs as anchors rather than sails. We are all wired a bit differently. One way I am wired has a name, Friedreichs Ataxia, so I can claim to have some personal familiarity with the consequences of natures experiments. Its presumptuous to make judgements about the quality of other peoples lives. We need to be careful of how we speak of the human condition. I use a wheelchair and my life is a gift, not a disease. Every day is a challenge, Ive learnt to be good at uncommon skills, I have many comforts and I like being unusual. A cure is of no interest. Of course, funding of biomedical research is enabled by loose talk about the disabled. Unreasonable fear, fostered by medical convention and stoked by the media can result in the medicalisation of lifes interesting turns. Headlines like this: Paraplegic man stands and steps dont deserve the same attention as this: Disabled drub runners by wide margin. The money diverted into biomedical research would often be better spent, as Hawking recommends, on removing physical and social barriers.
Competing interests None. Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

Elsevier 1470 2240 3710

NEJM (10 years) 4 7 11

NIH 1630 1920 3550

PubMed 167 410 577

Total 3533 5147 8680

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Reed WC. J Med Ethics (2011). doi:10.1136/medethics-2011-100061 Copyright Article author (or their employer)

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A new and accurate way to identify elite athletes

Warren C Reed J Med Ethics published online August 9, 2011

doi: 10.1136/medethics-2011-100061

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